GH3 loose hot shoe connector

S

stefanocps

Well-known member
hello i have notice on m y gh3 that the hot shoe connectr is loose on one side, it just move up and down. not so much, but when i attach to it a 7'' monitor it move more
what can be done? shall i bring the camera to Panasonic or there is something i can do?
thnks
 
Take it to Panasonic for repair, or invest in a GH3/GH4 cage to remove the strain of holding your monitor from the hot-shoe completely...

There's a whole thread on new GH4 Cages, and most of these will fit your GH3 camera. I just bought the ViewFactor Contineo GH4 cage that I'm using with my GH3 camera while I wait for new GH4 camera stock to arrive in Toronto. ( my GH3 hot-shoe is also slightly loose )
 
TheDingo said:
Take it to Panasonic for repair, or invest in a GH3/GH4 cage to remove the strain of holding your monitor from the hot-shoe completely...

There's a whole thread on new GH4 Cages, and most of these will fit your GH3 camera. I just bought the ViewFactor Contineo GH4 cage that I'm using with my GH3 camera while I wait for new GH4 camera stock to arrive in Toronto. ( my GH3 hot-shoe is also slightly loose )
Click to expand...
i have a cage! i was trying to use the shoe for a light setting
so it can be fixed.it looks like nothing attach the shoe to ody, but glue?
 
thankf for advice Thedingo. I was able to get few hours fix from Panasonic and now hot shoe it is firm. But i have lots of doubt with gh3. In 18 months i had lots of trouble. a firmware problem that it tooks few month to be solved till Panasonic released a patch for me. then assistance for the monitor that got loose. than (this was my fault) replace of monitor has it got broken after falling; then in august mother board got broken, and i had replacement. now again hot shoe loose. warranty is going to end, and seriously think to sell the gh3 for all this problem, don't trust it . might sell it and get a G6. what 's your opinio. What is average experience of users with Gh3 and failure?
 
Other than a slightly loose hot-shoe, I've had no problems with my GH3 over the last 18 months of shooting.

BTW, B&H Photo have the GH3 on sale for $798 right now. ( sorry I just noticed the .eu in your sig )
 
TheDingo said:
Other than a slightly loose hot-shoe, I've had no problems with my GH3 over the last 18 months of shooting.

BTW, B&H Photo have the GH3 on sale for $798 right now. ( sorry I just noticed the .eu in your sig )
Click to expand...
well n any case i wiuld not buy another gh3. perhaps a g6, being gh4 too expensive for my scopes
 
The hot shoe of my GH3 actually came off and there are NO screws to attach the hot shoe to the camera body. I can only guess that the hot shoe was glued to the body. Usually there are 3 or 4 small screws to attach the hot shoe to a camera body, for all the cameras I have used over so many years. Not the case in my GH3. Kind of scary and disappointed. Make me have some double in the quality of my potential purchase of a GH4 (I still own the GH1, GH2 & GH3). Panasonic did fix my hot shoe for free.
 
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slau said:
The hot shoe of my GH3 actually came off and there are NO screws to attach the hot shoe to the camera body.
Click to expand...

Text from the link below...

"the hot shoe seems to be screwed by two bolts on each side, incredibly both bolts came off, and the sad news is that one is probably inside my camera moving around because I only found one :-( so what I did is that I used a bolt from the outside of the body and put back two bolts on the hot shoe, but another sad thing I discovered is that this part of the camera is really weak, I honestly cannot see that much metal around here so my advice to people is: Do not put anything too heavy on there. Another sad thing is that yes the bolts that hold the hotshoe do not have locktite so that is why they come off so easily, all these small screws are not tight too much because if tightened too much they give out."

GH3 Loose Hot Shoe (pictures)


Doing a quick Google search, GH3 hotshoe problems seem to be pretty common...

Panasonic GH3 hotshoe problem
 
TheDingo said:
Text from the link below...

"the hot shoe seems to be screwed by two bolts on each side, incredibly both bolts came off, and the sad news is that one is probably inside my camera moving around because I only found one :-( so what I did is that I used a bolt from the outside of the body and put back two bolts on the hot shoe, but another sad thing I discovered is that this part of the camera is really weak, I honestly cannot see that much metal around here so my advice to people is: Do not put anything too heavy on there. Another sad thing is that yes the bolts that hold the hotshoe do not have locktite so that is why they come off so easily, all these small screws are not tight too much because if tightened too much they give out."

GH3 Loose Hot Shoe (pictures)


Doing a quick Google search, GH3 hotshoe problems seem to be pretty common...

Panasonic GH3 hotshoe problem
Click to expand...
I can only trust my own eyes and the staff of the Camera Store in Calgary. I could not find any screws or holes in the GH3 body to secure the hot shoe. I have used so many cameras over the last 30 years, the GH3 is the only one that have the hot shoe came off without any warning. I was travelling out of the country when the hot shoe 'just fell off'. I knew something was wrong when I could see the electronic circuity when I took my GH3 out of the camera bag. 'Luckily' the hot shoe just fell out but stayed inside my camera bag. My GH3 was no longer under warranty when Panasonic fixed the hot shoe with no charge. That is why I am still waiting for my GH4, despite all my problems with my GH3. Never have any problem with my G1, GH1 & GH2.
 
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slau said:
I can only trust my own eyes and the staff of the Camera Store in Calgary. I could not find any screws or holes in the GH3 body to secure the hot shoe.
Click to expand...

In the pictures that are part of the Personal View article you can see the bolt holes where the hotshoe attaches to the top of the camera shell. He even circles a pair in red to indicate where it is.

GH3_Hotshoe_Bolt_Holes.jpg

On the web I found the full service manual for the GH3 camera, which unfortunately does not talk about disassembly of the hotshoe, but it covers disassembly of everything else. Searching the whole GH3 Service Manual PDF I could not find any reference to adhesive or glue, as pretty much everything was bolted together. There was also a long parts list at the end that only listed camera parts and bolts.
 
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One of those bolts fell out inside my GH3 and then short circuited my board. Had to spend some bucks to get it all fixed. If you've got anything rattling around in your cam I suggest you get it sorted out quickly.
 
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